Yeh Saali Zindagi

Despite being a diehard Salman Khan fan and an Aamir Khan admirer, this movie made me realize that probably the best ‘Khan’ among all could possibly be Irfan Khan. This movie is entirely his and he is well supported by the not so new guy Arunoday Singh and a crackling script which keeps you glued to the screen from start till the end.

This movie marks a clear deviation from the tried and tested formula of most Indian movies; the narration, the pace, the dialogues and the screenplay are the clear winners for me in this movie. From the beginning till the time end credits roll you don’t know what’s going to happen next in the movie. It has 2 parallel tracks of love which don’t cross path till the interval and unlike other movies both the stories are narrated by the respective man of each track. One track has Irfan Khan, who works for Saurabh Shukla and earns him profit in crores but decides to leave him after falling for Chitrangada Singh, however later realizing that he has been cheated. All through the movie, Irfan Khan struggles to come out of his love for Chitrangada and every time you think/pray he has got over her there is a twist. The second track has Arunoday Singh (Kuldeep), a small time goon who is about to be released from jail where he has been working for Bade (Yashpal Sharma) and the corrupt cop Satbeer (Sushant Singh). Kuldeep’ wife Shanti (Aditi Rao - yes, the aunt from Delhi-6) gets a makeover in this movie and as one of my friends mentioned before I saw the film, you keep thinking what exactly did the director tell her about the role when he offered her the same, as most of her screen time is used in fighting and then making up with her husband which does go well with the overall script however.

The movie starts with Arun (Irfan Khan) realizing that he has been shot and the entire movie after that till the climax is in flashback mode. It’s difficult to club this movie into a particular genre but the best I can do is label it as a cult-crime-comedy-thrilller. The way the characters are introduced into the movie is really unique and actually helpful because of the number of characters involved. It does help pace the first half well, which otherwise would have made it really sluggish. The second half is when the two tracks of Irfan Khan & Arunoday Singh intersect and from there on it’s a roller coaster ride with the viewer continuously on his toes trying to guess the how they land up where the movie started.

In terms of performances, I need not mention anything more about Irfan Khan, he is a powerhouse. Arunoday Singh proves in this movie that he didn’t need any ‘quota’ to get into movies, something which his grandfather Arjun Singh promoted strongly for educational institutes, but this guy looks really comfortable and natural as Kuldeep and carries the parallel track almost entirely on his shoulders. Chitrangada Singh has nothing much to do, though I did find her accent a bit strange & irritating. Aditi Rao is fresh and does her job well. The supporting cast led by some of my favorite character actors like Sushant Singh, Saurabh Shukla, Yashpal Sharma, etc. is simply brilliant, they all in fact are provided some great in depth character sketches and are very unlike supporting casts of most Indian movies. Credit for this should entirely goto the director Sudhir Mishra who has also written the screenplay/story and has co-written the dialogues which again are very apt and real (though I did find the abuses a little too many). Another highlight of YSZ are the real locations where most of movie has been shot, they give the authentic feel and add to the dialogues, story and performances tremendously.

In all, a movie worth watching at least once, especially for Irfan Khan and Sudhir Mishra’s genius. The movie has some really good moments with the opening scene and the climax standing out.

My Rating - 8/10
(Script - 8/10; Direction – 9.5/10; Performance – 8/10; Entertainment - 7/10; Music – 7/10)

Starring: Irfan Khan  (Life…in a metro, Haasil, The Namesake), Arunoday Singh (Sikander, Aisha, Mirch), Chitrangada Singh (Hazaron Khwaishein Aisi, Sorry Bhai), Aditi Rao Hydari (Delhi-6) & an awesome support cast

Director: Sudhir Mishra (Hazaron Khwaishein Aisi, Chameli)

Producer: Prakash Jha (Turning 30, Dil Dosti, etc)

Writer: Sudhir Mishra (Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron, Hazaron Khwaishein Aisi, Dharavi)

Music: Nishat Khan, Abhishek Ray